Demonschool preview — Magic, mobsters, and melee

There are a lot of demos to try during Steam Next Fest, but Demonschool caught my eye thanks to its gorgeous pixel art. Add on top the fact it takes inspiration from Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, and you have my undivided attention. While I don’t think the game is for me unfortunately and it’s still very much in development, there’s a ton to love here with interesting mechanics, fun characters, and a story that doesn’t take itself seriously in the slightest.

In Demonschool, you play as Faye, a woman raised from a young age to hunt demons as the last of her lineage. Joining her are Namako, a photography nerd who very much does not want to be here, Knute, who’s always on the lookout for VHS tapes (it is 1999 after all), and Destin, a moron who is incredibly endearing and loves punching. Together, you’ll spend your school days doing “extracurricular activities” like hunting down ancient artifacts, killing demons, stopping profane rituals, and beating up mobsters.

I instantly fell in love with the premise, not to mention the sheer sense of style. Everything is presented with some great pixel art flourish, from the portraits to the UI and even the cards showing you time has passed. Demonschool looks absolutely stunning. It sounds great too, with some amazing music. I kinda wish the game had voice acting, as the writing is hilarious as well.

As I said before, Demonschool doesn’t take itself seriously. At all. This could be a double edged sword if the plot ever wants to go somewhere dramatic, but for now I appreciate the jokes landing a mile a minute. Faye and Destin are especially highlights, with both of them flaunting common sense in favor of just punching every problem they see with enthusiasm. Namako tries (and fails) to keep the group on task and out of deadly encounters, while Knute is mostly off doing his own thing. The roster will only grow as you progress too, with Mercy joining the gang in the demo (though she’s not playable), so I’d love to see what mayhem Faye can drag even more people into over the course of the game.

That is, if I enjoyed the battle system. It’s not bad, it’s just not for me. Battles, initiated by quests or the main story rather than random or foes encountered on the field, take place on a grid. You can place four units down in predetermined spots towards the right of the grid, and once you’re prepared, battle begins. On your turn, you can move any of your four units as much as you want, only limited by the number of pips you have in the bottom left corner. Moving a unit once only costs one pip, but moving them again will cause the cost to increase each time by one. So you could spread out moves, or use them all up on a single character.

The game really focuses on movement, as you don’t actually select attacks or anything in battle. Simply move a character in front of an enemy and they’ll attack automatically. Each character attacks differently, too. While Dustin’s punches will knock enemies back, Namako will dash through all the enemies lined up in a direction, pushing them towards where she stood previously. Play your cards right, and you can even do combo attacks by knocking an enemy into another character. Knute normally can’t attack on his own, but knock a foe into him and you’ll hit pretty hard. There’s a ton of strategy involved, I just don’t have the head for it.

Enemies will continually spawn until you reach the required number of kills. At which point, you need to move a unit to the other end of the battlefield to seal the portal that the demons are coming through, ending the encounter. Each battle has a turn goal listed in the top left, and you’ll get a better score and more rewards for winning within that time frame. You don’t earn experience like a typical RPG, however. Instead, you earn class credits which you can spend to take classes and unlock new equipable bonuses. For example, you can equip a resistance to dark type attacks, or equip an ability that heals you when poisoned. I didn’t really get to experiment with this system in the demo, as there was only one class to take, but it’s a neat system that rewards you with even more strategy and depth.

As you explore, progress the story, and do side quests, you’ll occasionally be presented with dialogue options that will increase your affinity with a party member. You can always tell who an option will bring you closer towards, but you’ll have to choose between an increase with one member over another. Once a character’s affinity levels up, you can do an affinity mission with them. Again, I couldn’t explore the full depth of this system in the demo, but I imagine they’ll have smaller plotlines over the course of the game and provide bonuses.

While Demonschool holds a ton of promise, in its current demo state it is incredibly buggy. I attempted to play through the demo three times, only to get soft locked each time. With no saves, this meant I had to start over every single time. I don’t know if it’s just my history in QA, which maybe I should take as a sign to return to that field, but I was constantly road blocked by simple things. If I pressed B to undo a unit placement before a battle, the UI would disappear and I had to force quit the game. If I went to the next story location, Faye would spawn inside a fountain and be unable to move. If I opened the menu to check out my new party member, I would be unable to close said menu. I’ve been emailing these bugs to the devs as I go and the demo is constantly receiving patches, but I think it needed a lot more time in the oven before it was ready to be shown off to the press, let alone the public.

Even with that issue, Demonschool is a game to keep your eyes on. It’s stylish, hilarious, and has a ton of depth. The game will release on September 13th this year for all platforms, but you can try the demo as part of Steam Next Fest right now. Even with the bugs, it’s worth a look to see if you like the combat or just to gawk at the visuals.

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